Before we get to the fun stuff, let's go over the basic rules of engagement for this adventure.

I will be using the Malenkirk battle system, which means I will roll initiative for everyone and all monsters/bad-guys will go on the same initiative.

Battles will follow this pattern:

1) If monsters roll highest initiative, then they will go first, followed by all of the PCs.
2) If the PCs roll highest initiative, they will go first, followed by all of the PCs.
3) If some of the PCs roll higher than the monsters, those PCs will go first, followed by the monsters. After that, ALL PCs will take a turn, followed by the monsters next turn. Rinse & repeat until combat is over.

When we get to our first battle, I will be using Google Docs to handle the mapping.

I will be using this post to track some things below, such as XP earned, treasure allocated, etc.

XP earned

None yet given out officially, but here is what has been completed thus far:

* Rescued a soldier. He gave 100 gp, which was returned to him by Leather. This has earned him a Good Reputation with the soldiers, giving him a +2 bonus to charisma based checks with the soldiers in Daunton while in any adventure I am running.

* Partially through the sewer navigation skill challenge.

* Defeated a group of altered rats.

* Survived the Water Chamber trap without a single loss of life (not even an animal companion!)

Time XP:

* Start of adventure: September 17th 2012.
* End of adventure: TBA

Treasure Given & Wealth Levels

This section will be used to track each of the character's wealth levels (so I know how much treasure I can and will give out). It will also be used to track who acquired what magic item(s) and when/where.

Gold Earned:

100 gp given HERE. This was given back by Leather (jbear) to the soldier and has earned himself a Good Reputation with the soldiers in Daunton.

All PCs have a Madness Threshold of 10 plus the higher of your Intelligence modifier, or your Wisdom modifier. Increase this number by 5 for every level you have accrued beyond lvl 1. I have taken the time to calculate this for each of you below. Please add this to your mini-stats and track it as you would hit points.

Torqua: 20
Leather: 21
Haaku: 22
Fhangrim: 29
Ilex: 29

Some encounters will features events, items, and/or creatures that will test your character's sanity. This may cause your character to accrue madness points.

Going Mad

When you have accrued a number of madness points greater than or equal to your madness threshold, you have temporarily gone insane. At that point, either the creature , item, or the event (controlled by myself) will be Dominating your character (save ends).

When your character saves against this Domination, subtract your Madness Threshold from the number of madness points you have accrued. This is now the amount of madness points you have accrued. Now lower your threshold by 5 (but keep track of your max threshold). This process can happen multiple times.

You may ask why? Simply put... after going through hell and winning the mental battle, you feel like you're you again...but madness always lingers, festers, in the back of ones mind after it has snapped. After that, it is easier for madness to set in again.

Regaining your sanity

However, not all is lost. Adventurers have braved the worst of the worst and come out on top again! It just takes a bit of rest and energy to allow your mind to sort it all out again.

One time per encounter or short rest you can spend 1 healing surge as a standard action to regain some sanity. If you do so, subtract a number of madness points from your accrued madness points equal to 1d4 + 2/lvl. Your number of accrued madness points can not go below 0 (zero).

At the end of an extended rest, your threshold goes back to its original value if it has been lowered during the course of the adventure, and you can spend 1 healing surge to regain some sanity.

Example

Haaku wakes up. His madness threshold is 21. He goes on an adventure and some freaky bad stuff happens, and he accrues 17 madness points. Continuing on in the adventure, something bad happens again and he accrues another 6 madness points. He is now at 23 of 21 madness points. Haaku has now gone insane and flips out. After a while, he saves against Domination and regains control of himself. Subtracting 21 from 23, he has now accrued only 2 madness points. However, his madness threshold is now reduced to 16.

Some more bad stuff happens to our poor Haaku, and he accrues another 10 madness points, bringing him up to 12 of 16 madness points. However, he has completed the event that caused the madness and takes a short rest. He spends a healing surge to regain some sanity. Haaku is level 3. As such, he rolls 1d4 and adds 2/lvl to this roll. He rolls a 3, and now subtracts 9 points from his number of accrued madness points, bringing him down to only 3 of 16 madness points.

A strange being appears and attacks Haaku. It's strangeness also causes Haaku to accrue madness points, and throughout the battle, he accrues another 12 madness points, bringing him to exactly 16 of 16. He is now dominated. At the end of his next turn, he saves against domination. Subtracting 16 from 16, he has accrued 0 madness points, but his threshold is now only 11... madness is setting in!

However, luck is with him, and he completes his adventure. Taking a nice long extended rest in the Hanged Man, his mind relaxes, and reality sets in once more. His threshold returns to its original value of 21.

Posting Rates

While I am certainly guilty of going far over this limit, I'd like to see everyone posting at least once every 2 days. Many of us know the burdens of real life, so just try to let us know if you won't be able to post within that period of time and one of us will be happy to NPC your character for you. Also, I tend to be a bit busy on the weekends, so I may or may not get the chance to post during those times.

OOC Thread

I've seen a couple of adventures do this now, and I think it may be a good idea for us, too, to utilize the Out Of Character thread for an adventure. As such, you will see another thread titled

"[OOC] Seeds of Chaos"

for us to make OOC comments in and will be a great place for you all to talk crunch/mechanics and tactics, ask ooc questions, etc. Let's try to keep it there as much as possible, and keep the story here. It will make for a better read down the line.

And now to start the adventure!

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Lieutenant Proudman waits for you outside of the Hanged Man.

"Thank you, once again, for volunteering to help Daunton in repelling the mad invaders that have come to our shores. Our destination is only a few minutes walk from here, but please feel free to make any purchases you may need to make before we get there. I want you all to come back alive, and I'd hate to see you not come back due to lack of preparedness."

OOC:

Feel free to introduce yourselves, make any purchases you may need to make, or ask any questions you may have of the new madness mechanic. Once everyone has posted one time, I'll really kick off the adventure!

Leather joins the others out on the street looking slightly sheepish, hands full of scraps gathered from the tavern. "I don't have any money left to do any more spending. What I've got is what I've got."

He offers no explanation as to why he is carrying scraps though you do hear an excited hiss emerge from a nearby sewer grate.

'I am a predator...the predator improves the race...I kill but not out of hate.' Frank Herbert: Emperor God of Dune

"If poking around is the sewers has taught me anything, it's that one: Always be prepared for a fight as there's no telling what you might face. And two: Always bring spare clothes, since there's no telling what you might step in." Torqua says, showing off her shiney new ruby Amulet.

"So who are the girls?" She asks Fhangrim, noticing his twin torchbearers.

Haaku double-checks that his healing potions are stowed safely in the sash tied at his waist, and waits for Ilex to join them. He lets Fhangrim handle introductions, (though the mention of Ursa Maximus catches his ear, and Haaku tucks it away) and addresses Leather. "How narrow are the sewers? Fighting in close quarters might be complicated with our numbers. Stealth may also be impractical- we'll have to move quickly down..." He trails off, eyeing Leather's armful of bread crusts and gristle. "Uh..."

Before Ilex joins the group she takes a few moments to call her companion back from the feywild. Noctua, Noctua Ursus. Want to come out and play? Come on girl, Let's go play. You see a slight shimmer in the air a few yards away and bounding out you see an "small" owlbear with a stick in its beak. The owlbear slows when it come up to Ilex and walks around Ilex rubbing up against her legs. Ilex takes a moment to rub Noctua behind her ears. She then takes the stick and tosses it a short distance away. The owlbear chases the stick and brings it back to Ilex. Good girl, good girl. But that's not what we are playing. Do you want to go chase some big rats in the sewers? Noctua flaps her wings excitedly Ok then, lets get some supplies.

Ilex and her companion wander off briefly returning with a new pouch at Ilex waist (nightmare tongue dust) and a matching Everburning torch for Noctua. Ilex's Moonwisp (Luna) is floating around her head. Is everyone here? Ilex's checks attendance Great, is there anything this divining diva should ask about via augury before we set out?

Everyone ready? I'll go ahead and continue, but if you have any further purchases to make, feel free to do so and update me in your next post as a retroactive action

Seeing that the group was assembled, Lieutenant Proudman leads the adventurers through the winding streets of downtown Daunton. The caged and free-wandering owl bears cause more than one set of stares from merchants (particularly the food kind) and city travelers, who give the group a wide berth wherever they are lead. Eventually, Proudman leads you to what seems like a dead-end alley.

Though the body is no longer present, a large red blood stain can be seen on the ground where the city's latest victim was killed. Large splashes of blood can be seen leading away from the larger stain, and a few small chunks of some kind of muscle can be seen on the ground near a pried open sewer grate that you could only assume is part of the victim's heart.

Remembering that some of the adventurers' were larger than your average human sewer worker, the Lieutenant unsheathed his sword and worked at prying open the grate fully to allow for ease of access, and also to keep the animals and other larger adventurers from being cut on the sharpened edges of pried open grate bars.

"There you go. Now it's up to you guys. I'll have one of my men stop by the Hanged Man a few times a day in case you need something, or have something to report. I seriously doubt that any of my men are alive down there, but if any of them are still putting up the good fight, do me a favor and get him out of there safely."